“You slept together?”
“No. No we did not. There was some awkward hugging involved, at best.” Jiya waited until she had her emotions in check and turned toward her mother. “I broke the engagement, mother. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t marry Ajay. I don’t love him. I’ll never love anyone but…”
“But the boy next door?” Her mother pushed away from the counter in a jerky movement and crossed the kitchen, keeping her back to Jiya. “I knew this would happen. I knew you wouldn’t be able to let him go, even though he’s never offered you anything but waiting. And waiting. He has you on a leash, Jiya.”
Her face smarted, but she breathed through the shock. “I know you can’t see it, mother, but I have him on one, too. It’s not a relationship I can explain to you. I’m still figuring it out myself, but I know if I married another man, I would be miserable. I would ache for him.”
“Don’t be crass.”
“I don’t mean intimately…” Her mother turned with a skeptical expression. “Okay fine, there might be some intimate issues—”
“Jiya,” she said on a withering sigh.
“But the pain would be in my heart and my stomach and my fingertips, too,” Jiya rushed to say. “We’ve belonged to each other since the beginning of time. I’ve loved him since the day he walked through the gap in our fence.”
Her mother softened momentarily but buried it under a frown. “He’ll just keep stringing you along. You’re being foolish.”
“I’d rather be foolish and hopeful than be smart and unhappy. That’s my choice. I’m sorry you don’t agree with it.” She extended a hand to her mother, letting it drop. “Andrew wants us to be together. There are just some road blocks—”
“For years I’ve watched you wait. When you were attending college and told me you were dating, I thought that was it. I even told Andrew you were seeing people, so he’d back off. But every time you came home, he got back under your skin like a stubborn splinter.” She huffed. “I thought you’d finally realized it was for nothing.”
Indignation rose in her stomach, hard as concrete. “It’s not for nothing and you shouldn’t have told him that. It wasn’t your business. And by the way, I went on three dates and all of them sucked, because I’ve always been in love with someone else. One person.” She lifted a hand and let it drop. “What else have you said to Andrew that I should know about?”
“At Jamie’s wedding, I might have implied your heart wasn’t into meeting new people because he was holding you back,” her mother said defiantly.
“Mother.”
“It’s true.”
“You’re right, it was true,” Jiya said, holding on to her patience. “Believe me, he didn’t need extra reasons to keep me at arm’s length. Please don’t meddle like that ever again.”
“I don’t meddle,” her mother scoffed, cradling her forehead. “The Chauhans will never invest in the restaurant now, Jiya.”
“Yes, I know. I’m so sorry,” Jiya said, guilt sticking her in the side like a thorn. “I need you to know that I thought hard about letting the restaurant go. I didn’t take the chance for granted, but I would have been forcing myself to trade professional success for happiness. And it’s probably too much right now, on top of everything else. On top of the broken engagement. But you’re already disappointed in me, so I’m just going to get it out there.” She swallowed. “I wouldn’t be happy running a restaurant forever, mother. I love being at Spice because it’s something our family built and maintained. It makes me proud. I just don’t know if it’s mine. My life’s work. The accomplishment I’ll attach to my name.”
She looked at Jiya for long, tense moments. “Don’t tell me this is about the airplanes.”
Her tone opened a pit in Jiya’s stomach. “Andrew bought me the lessons, you know. He wasn’t going to tell me. I found out by chance.”
Again, there was a softening around her mother’s eyes. “There is such a thing as dreaming too much. Dreaming beyond what is possible,” she muttered. “That is what you are doing. And it already pains me knowing where it will leave you. Nowhere.”
That blow left Jiya unsteady on her feet. “Try and remember that you were once in my shoes, mother. Do you regret choosing my father, despite your parents’ expectations?”
Her mother let out a soft expulsion of breath.
“I’ll be in late this morning to the restaurant,” Jiya said. “I’ve already asked the other waitress to help with prep and setting up the dining room.”
As if she hadn’t heard, her mother left the room without looking back.
With her windpipe the size of a straw, Jiya picked up her tote bag and walked out the front door, closing it softly behind her. As soon as she stepped off the porch, she saw Andrew’s face in the kitchen window of his house. He gave her a lopsided smile and held up her cup of coffee—and she remembered that she hadn’t only made the best decision for her.